_Bachar Mar-Khalifé - LP out soon
music to heat eardums up
Posted 21 Jul 10
OIL SLICK: a tragic event, always accidental. Has taken on the status of a common noun.
This is also the title Bachar Mar-Khalifé has chosen for his debut album, as a way of showing that life is an everyday responsibility. Born in Beirut, Bachar left Lebanon for France at the tender age of six.
Bachar Mar-Khalifé, who grew up listening to the voice and Lebanese compositions of his father (Marcel Khalifé), naturally opted for music as his main medium of expression. After training with Abd Al Rahman El Bacha, he went on to the Boulogne Conservatoire, where he gradually gave form to his singular approach to piano and percussions, alongside fellow students Rami of course (his brother, piano), but also Aymeric Westrich (drums, synths) and Alexander Angelov (bass, backing vocals), who all took part in the elaboration of Oil Slick.
After graduating from the illustrious Paris Conservatoire national Supérieur, he set off to tour the world with his father, under the kindly tuition of conductors Lorin Maazel and James Gaffigan.
Avant-gardist and unconventional, Bachar asserted his qualities as a performer while playing with the Orchestre National de France and the Ensemble Intercomporain (founded by Pierre Boulez, specialised in contemporary classical music). Oscillating between jazz, world music and electronic experimentation, he has also collaborated with Bojan Z and worked on Francesco Tristano’s live projects with Carl Craig and Moritz Von Oswald.
With Oil Slick, it is as a singer-composer that Bachar (percussions, piano) takes stock – on the social, political and passionate level – of the world as it is today.
Bachar’s six parables round off a modern definition of chamber music: while musically outward-looking and open to all kinds of influences, they remain essentially introspective and pregnant with a wealth of possible interpretations. Together, they make up a true musical anthology on humanity.
TRACKLISTING: 1. Progeria 2. Distance 3. Around The Lamp 4. Marée Noire 5. Democratia 6. NTFntf’
Release date: end of september, early october
